Bridges to Grace

“Sanctification by Works?”

This is in response to my earlier post. When I said this: “Your works are not contributing to your Justification, but your works manifest the Sanctification that is in progress in you!”

The responses left me feeling that we could work our way to Sanctification. Sanctification is not a part of our works. Works is a part of the Sanctification process in us. The work of the Holy Spirit in us will produce the works that we do. He makes us Holy. We can not make ourselves Holy through our works. We are Sanctified by His blood and the work of the Holy Spirit in us & we are being sanctified daily the same way.

To say we have to work for our sanctification, is like saying we have to work for our salvation. (Eph. 2:8-10) Don’t get me wrong we do works. But it is only as we place our faith in what Jesus did for us at the Cross, that the Holy Spirit works through us and that work in us produces works.

Romans 15:16..being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
(By the Holy Ghost, not by works)

1 Corinthians 1:30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
(God made unto us sanctification, not our works)

1 Corinthians 6:11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. ( we are sanctified in the name of the Lord and by the Spirit of God)

2 Thessalonians 2:13 …because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (through sanctification of the Spirit, not through our works)

Hebrews 2:11For both he that sanctifieth…(It is He that Sanctifieth, not our works)

Hebrews 2:11(Amplified Bible) For both He Who sanctifies [making men holy]…(Through the Sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit) (Through the work of the Holy Spirit, not through our works)

Hebrews 9:11-14But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (our works are dead if we think our works can sanctify us. It is through our faith in Christ, not through our faith in our works, that sanctify us)

Hebrews 10:10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(Not of Works)

Hebrews 13:12Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Nothing but the blood!!! Nothing but the blood saved us & nothing but our faith placed in the blood will produce sanctification in our lives. Once we place our faith in the sanctifying blood of Jesus, God gives us Grace and the Help of the Holy Spirit and that will produce our works)

1 Peter 1:2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit…(of the Spirit, not through our works)

Jude 1…to them that are sanctified by God the Father…

Sanctification is a process. We are Sanctified when we receive what Jesus did for us at the Cross. The same way, as we keep looking to the Cross, we are Sanctified. Our sanctification does not depend on our works. Our Sanctification depends on our faith being placed and focused on Jesus, then the Holy Spirit will produce proper works in us. If we are focusing on our works to sanctify us we will fail. I hear Jimmy Swaggart put it in a perfect way, “Proper works never produces proper faith, but proper faith will always produce proper works.” In other words we can not depend on, look to, try really hard to sanctify ourselves. We can not do anything on our own. We must continue everyday to place our faith in what Jesus did and that alone and we will receive help from the Holy Spirit and that WILL produce proper works in us!! (this by in no means are all that can be said about this subject. I just felt I did not want to leave the impression that I was for sanctification by works. We must keep our focus on the Cross and the Cross alone)